War of the Worlds - By H.G. Wells Blog 3

The narrator has manged to hide in a house with the curator. As far as he knows, his wife is still in Leatherhead and probably thinks he is dead. He wants to get away from the curate who is annoying and obnoxious. He decides to go find his wife and gets his provisions ready. The curate is unwilling to leave, however, more scared of being left alone than in venturing out, so they go together.

They are both wary of the Martians as they travel, and sometimes have to hide along the way. They find comfort in seeing people about and searching for better housing. Along the way they break into different houses to find resources, and they manage to find one that has a whole store of food. The narrator wants to stay there for a while to build up strength, but the curator feels nervouse about doing so.



While debating whether to stay of go, a sudden green light flashes, and the narrator and curator are both thrown into the walls. When they come to, they find another cylinder has landed close to them, and a Martain is standing guard outside. The narrator watches the Martians through a crack in the wall and finds out alot about them that no one else has known.

  Resistance has ceased, and the Martians are roaming around, and feeding off of human blood. They have released a plant called "Red Weed" that has covered and destroyed Earth's ecology. Just as aggressively as the Martians destroyed Earth.

The curator is taken by one of the Martians because he attracts attention due to his evangelical outbursts. By this time the narrator is already hiding in the coal cellar, and so he does not get caught. The Martians leave no food in the cupboards, and so the narrator starts getting weak and hungry. He decides that the only thing he can do is wait and hope that the Martians will abandon their pit soon.

After thirteen days in the house, the narrator finally ventures outside to find the Martian's gone. He moves on to London, and the way is filled with the red weeds. However, they are showing signs of disease. The narrator also notices that he no longer sees any Martians. They also die by the same disease. When he finally makes it back to his house, he finds his wife there. They are both shocked and his wife even faints. They are over joyed at finding each other.

War of the Worlds - By H.G. Wells Blog 2

The Martians have now settled and started their attack on the Earth. Our main character has had to step over dead bodies just to get back to his house, where he watches a third cylinder fall to the Earth.

After the traumatization of getting back to his house, he jumps at the chance of human company and invites a soldier into his house. They make it through the night, and after collecting some necessities, the main character heads on to get his wife and take her to safety, while the soldier wants to get back to his battery. They decide to travel together for most of the way since they are headed in the same direction.

On the road they are traveling, many people are seen packing their things, however, very few are in any rush, and in fact a lot of kids are excited. Sometimes the main character and the soldier try to warn people, but they aren't very successful.

They make it to Weybridge where they must take a ferry over the river to go any further. The trains have already been stopped. The general atmosphere is not yet one of panic, people are confident in their eventual success over the Martians, but there are anxious glances at the skyline and frequent shouts.

Suddenly shots are fired but the guns are concealed by the trees and the Martians are still out of sight. The battle continues for some moments, invisible to the crowd, until five Martian machines appear, heading towards the river. There is silence among the crowd, but then panic breaks out. Recognizing the Heat-Ray in the hands of one, the main character and others begin jumping into the river. 

As the Martians are trying to cross the river, one of them is caught off guard by the hidden guns, and gets killed. The other two Martians are angry at this, and use the heat ray to decimate Weybridge. Fortunately, the main character goes under water, and in so survives.


The Martians bring their companion away and back to their original pit. The Martians work on something in their pit, while one stands guard outside. Reinforcements are coming in every 24 hours.

The narrator manages to find a boat, and makes it as far as the Middlesex bank. After resting for a bit, he decides his best course of action is to head North.

The War of the Worlds - By H.G. Wells Blog 1

Contrary to Day of the Triffids, War of the Worlds starts off before devastation or world domination. At the beginning, astronomer's are curious about some explosions on Mars. There are three in total, but what the people of Earth don't know is that these aren't just explosions. What is really happening, is that Mars is shooting capsules down to Earth.

Humans are unsuccessful in trying to open the first capsule, but soon after landing, it opens of it's own accord. What comes out is nothing anyone would ever have suspected. These huge gray blobs with tentacles stumble out. They are not friendly though, they want Earth for their own. Their own planet is on it's last days, and Earth is the perfect place to resettle.

The hundreds of people that are now watching are all wiped out, with a thing that is called the "Heat Ray". It burns everything it can reach, but the beam is invisible. The narrator manages to escape the Heat Ray, and runs home. Once there, he brings his wife and house keeper to her cousin's house. He returns home that night, to bring back the cart he borrowed. 

It is a difficult ride home, because it's raining, and thundering, but the thunder has a weird green colour. The way home is filled with destruction, and people are lying dead in the streets. He manages to get past the Martians, who are now in some sort of weird armour that is 100 feet tall, and suspended on three legs. It is a close call though. He manages to make it home safely though, and takes a rest to get over all the trauma of that day.

The Day of the Triffids - By John Wyndham, Blog 3

 The setting of this story has a big influence on the events. It takes place in England, and although it is all over the place, there are things that remain the same no matter where the character's go. The book starts off with the main character Bill in a hospital on the morning that everyone has gone blind. At first Bill doesn't know that everyone is blind, and is very confused. There is something haunting about an empty hospital, when everyone goes blind. Some are confused and babbling, some are oblivious to the fact that they are blind, some kill themselves, but most are trying to find a way out, and are all grouped in the main lobby.

Next, we go into the main streets of England. People are walking around with makeshift sticks or else feeling their way along buildings. Some have already smashed through store fronts searching for food and other survival materials. Cars are parked on the streets, and the scariest thing is that it is quiet. For a city that during the daytime and even night time always has noise, and cars and is generally really busy, something feels very unnerving when everything is silent except for the tapping of sticks, and the occasional cry from someone.

From here, we meet Josella, and her and Bill find a flat that was abandoned. While in the hallway however, they encounter a blind couple who kill themselves so that they don't have to suffer. It is very scary seeing people helpless and killing themselves so that they don't have to live blind.

At first all the towns seem empty, and yet you will find blind people trying to make their way along streets and survive. Then the Triffids make their way towards the city's and towns, and the blind populations get smaller and smaller. If not killed by the Triffids, most people die of some sort of disease that Bill believes has also come from the comets that made everyone blind in the first place.

The devastation of Earth is what makes the humans have to learn to survive in new ways, and it is the basis of this story. If the world had not been devastated, and there weren't Triffids, or all the other problems that happened, there would have been no story at all. Ultimately it makes one think of how we would try to survive if a disaster like this happened. Would you be able to make it?

The Day of the Triffids - By John Wyndham, Blog 2

Although Bill is the main character of this book, he is not the only one who undergoes a major change. The woman that he saves from the blind man does too. Her name is Josella Playton. She is also one of the fortunate ones who is sighted. She didn't see the meteor shower because she was sick and stayed in bed the whole day before with all the curtains drawn. It turns out that she slept through the whole thing, and good thing too, because it brings some dynamic back to the story.

In Josella's life before devastation hit Earth, she wrote a book that was very frivolous. It was called, "Sex is my Adventure". She had done it just because she needed money, but it became very famous. She sees the devastation as a way to get away from the view everyone has of her. It is a way for her to start over again. She is very happy she meets Bill, because in a world full of blind, it is nice to have someone who is like you, and it would be very lonely otherwise. It is a good thing they find each other, because Josella looks for her dad after being rescued, and it turns out the Triffids have killed everyone in her house including her father. Josella and Bill both have no family, and are left with only each other. They decide to stick together, and while driving around, find the university group.

The night after joining, they get captured and get split up after a fake fire. They are put in charge of groups of blind people, but don't have to take care of them for long, because everyone starts dying from some sort of illness. Josella finds her way to her aunt's cottage, while Bill goes in the other direction to try to find her. At the cottage, she finds her aunt and uncle, and their friend, blind and surrounded by Triffids. She manages to get in the house, equipped with a flame thrower that kills the Triffids. Bill eventually finds his way there.

By this time, Bill and Josella are basically in love, and so about a year later they have a son. Josella now becomes a housewife, something everyone from her past life would never have thought possible. They are very happy together, but must do everything on their own. Josella's role as a farmers wife includes making the food, and repairing clothes, and taking care of the kids. All of these are things she probably would never have seen for herself, or at least nowhere in the near future. She changes the way she lived a lot in order to survive, but she becomes happier, and she decides that she doesn't regret the way things turned out, and in fact is pretty happy with the way they did.

The Day of the Triffids - By John Wyndham, Blog 1

At the beginning of the story, the world sees devastation. A meteor shower leaves everyone who watched it blind. Everything everyone has ever known is gone. Right from the start, this book requires the characters to change.

The people who are blind must try to find a way to survive and the people who aren't must also. Everyone is at danger from the Triffids; walking plants who have a deadly stinger. Even the few who aren't blind must be careful of the Triffids.

The main character of the story, named Bill, is not blind. He was one of the fortunate people who didn't watch the shower. Now he must learn to survive in a different and dangerous world. He encounters a girl enslaved by a blind man, and saves her. Together they find a gathering at a university. Two groups are found there. One inside the university wall, full of the sighted, and one outside, with only one sighted and a host of blind. The one sighted man demands that the ones with sight need to get a group of blind and take care of them.

Although Bill is a little conflicted about whether he should take a group of the blind under his care, he decides against it, since no one knows if anyone will come rescue them. If no one did come, then it would most likely be that they would run out of supplies for the blind. Altogether, it would be much better to cut their losses, and focus on taking care of themselves, and building up from scratch.

This new life that Bill and his companion have to try to live in is challenging. A number of changes have to be made. One cannot live by the old rules of the world. For example, one must steal supplies from stores to be able to survive. Money no longer had any value.

Bill learns how to survive in this new world, but must change a lot from how he used to live. For one thing, he now must learn how to do a bunch of different things to survive, such as farming, and learning how to fix things. There were no longer specialists in these areas, and you had to do everything on your own. By the end of the book, Bill became a very different person, and yet, a happier person.